338 The Chestnut-sided Warbler 



the female is quite similar, although its colors are duller. In the fall and 

 winter the plumage presents a very different appearance. The upper 

 parts then are yellowish olive-green sometimes with faint streaks on the 

 back. The deep chestnut of the sides has given way to a few spots or 

 patches of this color. 



In seeking the Chestnut-sided Warbler one should go to woodlands 



that have been cut over and grown up in bushes. 



Haunts There are found the conditions which this bird dearly 



- loves, and in such a situation one may pass a whole 



forenoon and seldom be out of sight or hearing of one or more examples 



of it. : 



The nest of this Warbler is made of strips of bark, soft, dead leaf- 

 stems and similar materials. It is lined with tendrils and rootlets, and 

 usually is placed in a small tree or bush two and a half to three and a 

 half feet above the ground. Rarely have I found one so situated that it 

 could not be readily reached by the spring of an agile house-cat, and 

 there is much evidence to prove that many are annually pulled down by 

 these feline hunters. 



It is commonly reported that as many as five eggs are deposited in 



the nest before the bird begins sitting, but fully three-fourths of those 



nests that I have found contained only four eggs. In color they are white, 



with numerous brown markings of various shades, some distinct, others 



more or less obscure, as if the inside of the shell had 



N g* * been painted and the color was showing through. 



The spots and blotches are gathered chiefly in a 



wreath about the larger end. They are pretty, dainty, little objects, as 



is the case with all Warblers' eggs, about two-thirds of an inch long 



and half an inch in thickness at the largest place. 



The Chestnut-sided Warbler feeds almost exclusively on insects. 

 John James Audubon wrote that he once, in Pennsylvania, during a snow- 

 storm in early spring, he examined the bodies of several of these birds, 

 and that he found that their stomachs contained only grass-seeds and a few 

 spiders. The birds were very poor, and evidently were in a half-starved 

 condition, which would probably account for the fact that they had been 

 engaged in so un-warblerlike an act as eating seeds. Ordinarily this 

 \Yarbler is highly insectivorous, and feeds very 

 Insect largely upon leaf -eating caterpillars. It also collects 



plant-lice, ants, leaf-hoppers, small bark-beetles, and 

 in fact is a perfect scourge to the small insect-life inhabiting the 

 foliage of the bushes and trees where it makes its home. Sometimes 

 the birds take short flights in the air after winged insects. It will thus be 

 seen that the Chestnut-sided Warbler has a decided value as a guardian of 

 trees, which is reason enough why the legislators of the various States 

 where the bird is found have been induced to enact the Audubon Law for 

 its protection. 



The song of the Chestnut-sided Warbler is often confused in the ears 



